You got the one with the stitching (3rd generation) ?I got saddle brown.
Maybe he has contacts for staff sales perhaps. Open box product being moved on cheap to staff if they want it?
I don’t think they hold inventory there these days, but I know in our company, obsolete and old stock is written down dramatically and sold off to any buyers who fancy taking a chance on moving it on themselves.
I’m in Ireland too, I had really fast delivery!
With my old saddle brown I am going to do an experiment to get out darker. IMO Dark brown is one of the colors missing in the complete Apple band programme